I think we should stop encouraging him.

He might takes this seriously.

Another Mustang rental car fantasy.

Wait till he finds out it isn't the big Mustang.

Rental car? I thoought it must be a Saleen!

Hey, Texas has a couple of 85MPH roads. I wonder how far you could push it there and not get a ticket.

I hope no one will object if I turn serious for a moment.

I was a cop for a very long time and, as stated before, my son is currently. In my entire career, no one, police or politician, ever pressured me to write tickets for revenue and I know it is the same for my son. In my case, the jurisdiction I worked for did not recieve any ticket revenue - it all went to the court system and then to the state general fund. I just asked my son and he does not even know where ticket revenue goes in his state.

In my case, I will bet that for every out-of-state car I ticketed, I ticketed 50 or 100 local vehicles. In my son's case, he works in a world-class vacation destination and so he proably stops about the same proportion of out-of-state and local vehicles.

Now, may I tell you the real reason most police write tickets? It is because we know that stringent enforcement dramatically reduces injury and death. When we are stopped behind your car with our emergency lights operating, we are not only imparting a traffic safety message to you but also to however many cars pass while we are there.

When you respond to gruesome fatal and injury accidents on a regular basis, you will do anything in your power to reduce that carnage. Police know that traffic enforcement is the most effecdtive thing we can do. Now that I'm retired, passing on safety messages like this is the only thing I can do.

Thank you. You are right, and I am wrong, at least as far as many states are concerned. Some localities in some states do keep the revenue, but clearly traffic enforcement saves lives, the more enforcement, the more lives.

Dwooddon, thank you for posting that. I am a great supporter of law enforcement officers in general. I firmly believe that the great majority of LEOs in my country take on their often extremely demanding job because they are dedicated to helping people, and to preserving public safety. I too see the victims of high-speed traffic accidents in my job, and I know how quickly lives can be ruined out on the roads.

In my 25+ year driving career, during which I have driven at least 250,000 miles, I have been pulled over for moving violations three times. The first time, I had just driven 100 miles or so, late on a weekend night, dodging drunk drivers, only to get pulled over for failing to come to an absolutely complete stop at a stop sign. The ticketing officer was apologetic, and admitted to me that I hadn't really done anything wrong, but that it was the end of the month, and he had a quota to meet. I thanked him for at least being honest with me.

The other two times were for speeding on highways.The latest time, in Utah, the man decided to pull me over rather than another driver who was driving much faster. I'm guessing that he did it because the other guy was a local, or maybe a friend of his. But maybe it was just that, because I was going much slower, I was easier for him to catch up with. Whatever the reason, his purpose clearly was not to maximize public safety. That was one man, one time.

Driving more slowly is something I had not thought about. If I did that then I would be able to look around and enjoy the scenery while driving, enjoy a cold beverage, and have lunch without making a stop.

OTOH, I could probably do all that while driving fast: http://tinyurl.com/c9cwlah

Making a pledge to fuel up at half a tank was useful. It won't happen but it has got me leaning away from waiting until I am on E, which is usual practice. This 1000+ miles loop from Las Vegas in one week (speeding around southern Utah) is more driving than I usually do in two months.

Checking on the range of the car was a good idea. Range is about 300 miles city and 400 miles highway driving. A bit over 15 gallon tank.

Las Vegas to Kanab is 200 miles, so no stop, as there will be at least 5 gallons and 100 miles left.

Kanab to MV to Bluff is 250 miles. Fill up in the morning in Kanab, top off after stopping in Page. Fill up in the morning in Bluff. Only 173 miles to Green River, plus the parks, so say 200 miles. No pit stop necessary on that leg. Fill up in the morning in Green River and each day after that (or night before). The remaining days are all less than 200 miles. No more gas stops until just before returning the car at McCarran.

The other overnights are Torrey and Kodachrome Basin and a relaxing! two nights in Mt Carmel. And one night in Vegas to start it off. No, I won't leave all of our gas money at the blackjack table (though it is all downhill at some point after Torrey, isn't it?)